Star Trek Picard SPOILERS thread

[MarkB]

As a logistical exercise, it's also far from trivial to find somewhere to put an entire planetary population after you've evacuated them. Several billion people being added to a planet's population is somewhere between an economic disaster and a de facto invasion, no matter how post-scarcity your economy is. And dispersing them across many worlds breaks up ethnic groups or even families, and requires even more journeys for your evacuation fleet.

 

[Janx]

As a logistical exercise, it's also far from trivial to find somewhere to put an entire planetary population after you've evacuated them. Several billion people being added to a planet's population is somewhere between an economic disaster and a de facto invasion, no matter how post-scarcity your economy is. And dispersing them across many worlds breaks up ethnic groups or even families, and requires even more journeys for your evacuation fleet.

Would it really be that hard to keep families together and large clusters of ethnic groups at this scale? We're probably hauling out a hundred to a thousand people at a time, to specified planets. Assuming you load up by family or regional lot, you'll end up at the same place.

It might be a different matter if it was 1-6 people at a time in ramshackle craft and going anywhere but here.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think in the Dominion War of get had a few thousand ships each one crewed by hundreds of people.

Assuming they crammed in refugees to double that number or even triple it's a few million people pere trip using the entire fleet.

I doubt they used the entire fleet. Vietnam 75 is the closest irl equivalent.

The main planet is screwed.

 

[Morrus]

Would it really be that hard to keep families together and large clusters of ethnic groups at this scale? We're probably hauling out a hundred to a thousand people at a time, to specified planets.

More than that. Squads of colony ships carrying 50,000 people each. A million at a time.

 

[MarkB]

More than that. Squads of colony ships carrying 50,000 people each. A million at a time.

And at those scales, under emergency conditions, you'll be lucky to even keep everyone identified, let alone sorted for placement. And that's even if you weren't dealing with a culture that embraces secrecy at every level, whose members have been taught their whole lives to distrust the Federation.

 

[Janx]

More than that. Squads of colony ships carrying 50,000 people each. A million at a time.

That makes it easier to keep communities together. Sure, a few mixups are going to happen, but the squadron shows up, and we slurp up everybody in Alaska and take them to Planet X, return, and get Washington state, and lather, rinse repeat. It's not like escaping Europe during WW2 in dribs and drabs by any means necessary.

Though at a million at a time, it's going to take 350 trips to scoop up everybody in America (based on last known population size I am aware of and not actual facts).

It's not a trivial operation. And once the Federation halts the project, it will turn into a cluster-smurf as everybody in dribs and drabs tries to escape by any means necessary.

I have no idea how bad it would be for us if Alpha Centauri blew and the blast traveled at .1c, but 40 years from now there could rocks, radiation, emp, who knows what Umbran will tell us. I imagine he'd have a better guestimate of speed so we could see if piddling around for 14 years like Starfleet would be ok.

 

[Morrus]

And at those scales, under emergency conditions, you'll be lucky to even keep everyone identified, let alone sorted for placement.

Well, it's better than being dead, right?

 

[Morrus]

That makes it easier to keep communities together. Sure, a few mixups are going to happen, but the squadron shows up, and we slurp up everybody in Alaska and take them to Planet X, return, and get Washington state, and lather, rinse repeat. It's not like escaping Europe during WW2 in dribs and drabs by any means necessary.

Though at a million at a time, it's going to take 350 trips to scoop up everybody in America (based on last known population size I am aware of and not actual facts).

No, each squad is a million people. An Empire runs a thousand squads at a time, each going to a different planet.

And at those scales, under emergency conditions, you'll be lucky to even keep everyone identified, let alone sorted for placement. And that's even if you weren't dealing with a culture that embraces secrecy at every level, whose members have been taught their whole lives to distrust the Federation.

As for mixing people up -- if it's a choice between "we're all dead in a supernova now" or "on a planet elsewhere but might have to travel a bit after that after using Spacebook to find my family" later, I know which I'm choosing.

Plus all the people for whom a little crappy warp-capable starship is a car.

I mean, I dunno. I just think an FTL-capable Empire can evacuate a planet faster than a 0.1c shock wave. They don't even have to go far before they're years ahead of it!

 

[Umbran]

It’s a bit much to think all of star fleet security is complicit though.

The head of Star Fleet Security is complicit. It is quite possible she ordered that action herself. They covered up the previous hit, why would they not cover up this?

There's a question as to how many they can cover up before there's a leak, but two is probably within bounds.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Given how emotional and untrusting Romulans usually are, I could see federation ships having troubles getting some of them to even get aboard.

"I'm not getting in no Feddie shuttle!"

Look at something like the movie Titanic - trying to get everyone aboard would turn into a big mess fast, I bet. With the logistics involved, even a small mistake could be costly. Especially if everyone started to try to get off the planet by "any means necessary".